Disclaimer: I don't own any part of The OC.

A/N-I finally got around to writing the sequel to The Last Goodbye, as you can see. So the thing about this story is that it's going to be a bunch of oneshots about Seth's life raising his kids and such. I couldn't come up with an idea for a whole story but I had a bunch of little ideas so I think that this will work out a lot better. Thanks to Meg for proofreading this for me!


Never Forget

Seth looked around at his handy work. He had to admit that he was pretty pleased with what he had done to the house.

There were streamers hung around the house and he had blown up balloons and just thrown them all over the place. It was James's tenth birthday and Seth had wanted it to be as special as possible.

It had been five months since Summer's death and they were all adjusting. It was a slow process but Seth was getting better at being a mother and a father to his kids. They were adjusting to it too, which was good.

Seth looked at his five month old daughter. "What do you think Grace? Do you think your brother will like it?"

"Daddy, she can't say anything back," Cooper spoke up from the table, where he was coloring pictures to hang for his brother.

"I know Coop. I just like to ask her opinion. She is a girl and girls are much better at decorating things. She might give a cry of joy if she likes it or something."

Cooper just looked at his dad, his nose wrinkled in slight disgust. He was having a harder time adjusting to Grace than anything else. He loved his sister-at least Seth thought he did-but with the loss of his mother and gaining a sister was a lot for him to take in. James didn't have to adjust to Grace much, already going through everything with Cooper.

They were getting by though. Even though they had to make some major changes in their lives to make everything work.

The first change that Seth had made was Grace's name. He had named her Summer Grace Cohen, after her mother, which everyone loved and thought was a good idea. He did too but it was the thought of calling her Summer, of there being another Summer in his life because the other was gone. After a month of calling her Summer and his heart aching every time he said it, then another month of referring to her as 'the baby', he started calling her Grace. He could tell that everyone agreed with him, mostly from the huge sigh of relief that was given when he made this announcement.

They had also had to fix the fact that Seth was now the only one taking them places. He was learning that it was next to impossible to be in two places at once, like he needed to be a lot of the times.

One day the previous week had been one of those days. He had a day full of meetings at work but he had scheduled them so that he would be finished by 3 so he could pick up Cooper from school, then swing by Ryan and Taylor's, where Grace would be with Taylor and her son Micah. Of course this didn't happen, as his final meeting of the day ran late by an hour. When he finally got to Cooper's school, he was an hour and a half late. After the initial panic of not seeing Cooper anywhere, then finding him in the principal's office, crying. He had been so angry with Seth, which was mostly noticeable when he yelled at him "Mommy would have never been late". That had stung Seth a lot and he was making sure from now on that he would never be late.

The door in the kitchen opened up and Seth turned to see who it was. He smiled when he saw his mom, dad, and sister Sophie walk inside the house.

"Grandma! Grandpa!" Cooper ran to his grandparents excitedly. They hadn't seen one another in several months. They had made a point to come for James's birthday though.

Seth wanted this day to be special. James had been so excited for his tenth birthday since the day after he had turned nine. With Summer's death, it had put a slight damper on everything, so Seth wanted to make sure James knew that the day was still going to be special. He had arranged for Sandy, Kirsten, and Sophie to come for the weekend and Taylor, Ryan, and Micah were going to come over for the night. When James got home from school, he was going to see his family there, along with cake and presents.

"Hey Coop," Sandy scooped his grandson off the ground.

"Where's Grace?" Kirsten asked, excited to see her only granddaughter.

Seth didn't have time to reply as she saw Grace and went immediately over to her and picked her up, cradling her in her arms.

"Hi Mom, Dad. I'm great thanks for asking," Seth said.

"Hey Seth," Sophie came over to him. "You should realize by now, they care more about those who are younger and cuter than you."

"Thanks Soph," Seth rolled his eyes. "You really know how to make your big brother feel great."

Sophie smiled at him. "Anytime. So where's James?"

"He's at school still. He had a comic book club meeting after school today."

"Well, he really is your kid."

"I am going to pretend that I wasn't insulted by that," Seth said.

"Seth, she is getting to be so beautiful," Kirsten said.

"Well, I don't think that I can take any of the credit for that one."

Everyone in the room knew what he meant when he said that. She already resembled her mother in more ways than just her name. He tried to forget about this sometimes, though it was next to impossible for him to do so.

The door opened again, this time Ryan and Taylor coming inside, Micah in Taylor's arms. More greetings were exchanged between the group and they soon all settled down in the house. Seth had to admit, he was excited for the carpool to drop James off. He knew that he was going to be so excited his family was here.

Everyone settled throughout the house, Seth taking Grace back from his mother, much to her disappointment. He took a seat on the couch, holding Grace in his arms, while waiting impatiently for James to come home.

"So Seth," Sandy came and sat down on the couch next to Seth, "how is everything going with you? Are you doing all right?"

"Yea, I guess," Seth shrugged. "I would be lying if I said that everything was a total and complete breeze. It's the farthest thing from it actually. Especially taking care of Grace along with James and Cooper. Ryan and Taylor are helpful though." He paused. "It hasn't been long. The boys are still adjusting to this sudden change in their lives. Maybe once it's been longer maybe it will get better."

Sandy nodded his head. "You do know that your mother and I are willing to come here and help whenever you need it, right?"

"Yea, Mom tells me every time I talk to her on the phone. It's fine though."

"You should come and visit us. Your mom loves those kids so much, she wants to see them more. Your sister too. She gets annoyed with just having us 'old people' at home with her."

"I'll try Dad," Seth said. "And I really don't blame Sophie for saying that."

Before Sandy could respond, the front door opened. Seth looked at it excitedly as James entered into the house.

He looked up at everyone, though there wasn't a look of excitement or happiness on his face, more one of sadness. He looked back down at his feet before mumbling a quick hello.

"Happy birthday James," Kirsten wrapped her arms around her eldest grandson.

"Thanks Grandma," he muttered.

Everyone wished him a happy birthday and he gave them all pretty unenthusiastic responses. Seth frowned at his son. He had thought that he would be happy about this surprise. He didn't look too pleased at all.

"How was your comic book club today?" Seth asked, passing Grace back to his mom, much to her delight, so that he could give his full attention to James.

James shrugged. "It was fine. They gave me this for my birthday." He held out a comic book that he was holding in his hands.

"How awesome is that buddy? You got a brand new comic book for your collection."

James just shrugged again, taking his backpack off and placing it in the closet. He looked at his family, who were really expecting some sort of reaction from him. He didn't give them anything.

"I made your favorite dinner James. Spaghetti with meatballs. And I even got the bread from that place that you love," Seth said.

"That's great," James replied.

"Well, let's go eat now then."

"James, we got you an ice cream cake. We know how much you love them," Taylor piped up.

"Thanks Aunt Taylor."

James started walking into the kitchen, them all slowly following him. Everyone could sense that something was wrong with him, but they didn't know why.


For the rest of the evening, James acted the same way. He opened the presents from his family, ate the cake Taylor bought but he just wasn't into it. He was very distant from his family members.

Finally, Ryan, Taylor, and Micah had left to go their house and Sophie, Kirsten, and Sandy had gone to their hotel, with promise to take the family out to breakfast. Seth put Cooper and Grace to bed then went to talk to James, who he knew would still be wide awake.

Sure enough, James was lying in bed, reading his new comic book. His presents from his family were sitting on the ground next to his bed, not completely discarded, but still not seeming as if he wanted them.

"Hey buddy, what's up?" Seth questioned, taking a seat on the bed.

"Nothing," James replied, not looking up from his comic book.

"Do you like the new comic that you got from your friends?"

"It's all right."

"That's good."

Silence fell between the two, which was unusual. Seth couldn't handle this. He thought he had a good three years before he had to deal with a moody teenager. This was three years too soon.

"James what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Dad. I'm fine."

"And Spiderman is real. Come on James, talk to me."

James didn't reply to him but he did place his comic book down and made eye contact with his father. He averted his eyes after several seconds and started to mumble something.

"I can't understand you James," Seth said quietly, trying to not badger his son into talking.

"I didn't want any of this stuff for my birthday."

Seth looked at the presents confused. "But…we got all that you asked for. I even wrote down everything that you told me to get."

James shook his head. "But I was just telling you that I wanted those things. I didn't want any of it. Not the cake, not the presents, not Grandma and Grandpa comin' over."

Seth was still really confused and felt as if he was missing something major in this conversation. "What did you want then James?"

"I wanted Mom to come back," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper but still audible enough for Seth to hear. "But I know she can't. I just wanted her here for my birthday."

Seth felt like a huge idiot at that moment. He had tried so much to make this day great for his son, tried to make it great for everyone. He didn't think about how Summer not being there would affect everything.

Well, he did, he just didn't like the think about it. Summer was constantly in the back of his mind, if not the most prominent thing that he thought of. Sometimes, when certain things came up, he tried to not think of how things would be with her there.

"James, I'm sorry."

James shook his head. "Dad, there's nothing that can change it. I just wanted her here."

"Me too buddy."

"She would have made it awesome." James paused. "Not that you didn't do a great job."

"I know what you mean. She would have thrown you a great party and made you a cake that was perfect and the perfect dinner. She would have gotten you everything you wanted, things that you didn't even want."

"Dad," James said after a few minutes of quiet, "I miss Mom a lot."

"Me too James."

"Do you think Cooper misses her?"

"Yea. I don't think he likes my cooking very much," Seth smiled to himself. Cooper had made a comment when they were eating the spaghetti about how the noodles were too 'mushy' and the sauce wasn't 'tasty enough'. Seth had to admit his cooking was kind of crap a lot of the time, but he tried though he wasn't up to Cooper's standards just yet.

"Do you think Grace will miss her? When she's older?"

"I think we'll all miss her."

"Will we ever stop missing her?"

Seth sighed. "Honestly? I don't think so. Maybe we won't miss her as much but we'll still miss her."

"Will I ever forget her?" James asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

Seth sat, thinking back to some of Summer's final words to him. She didn't want them to forget her. He was going to make that his lifelong goal, to always make sure that she was remembered. "I won't let you forget her James. If you even get remotely close to doing so, I will pick up a picture and show it to you and then tell you stories about her to make sure you never forget."

James smiled at this thought. He knew that his father would do just this, that he would never let them forget her. "Dad?" he questioned as he placed his comic book down, leaning down against his pillows.

"Mhmm?" Seth had gotten momentarily lost in thought, James's voice had brought him back.

James yawned widely before he asked his question. "Can you tell me a story about Mom?"

"Of course," Seth agreed. He paused before launching into stories of Summer.


Seth laid down on his bed, exhausted. After telling James (and Cooper who had come in the room after he couldn't sleep) many stories about Summer and him, he had thought he would have gotten to go to bed. No such luck, as Grace started to cry so he had to go take care of her. Now he was finally able to get to sleep.

He liked these moments of the day, they were sometimes his favorite. He loved the time he spent with his children but he liked having the time to reflect on the day. He would think about everything that had happened, especially about the decisions that he had made concerning his kids. They were the most important things in his life now.

Sometimes at night he thought about that horrible day and he wondered about how different it could have gone. He often forgot but was later reminded that James had been in the car and that he could have died that day also. He knew that he was lucky that he had survived and had managed to escape with only the broken arm and few scratches that he had. He was thankful for that everyday.

He had lost Summer that day but he had gotten Grace. His beautiful daughter. He could have lost her too. Once again he knew that he was lucky that she was alive, as she had been clinging to life the first few days of her life, though she had greatly improved. He liked to think of her as his little miracle.

He slid his hand underneath his pillow, grabbing hold of a piece of fabric. It was an old t-shirt of Summer's, one that she had worn often and that she had loved. He loved the way it looked on her. He had it under his pillow for months now and he didn't intend to remove it anytime soon. It was a comfort to him, especially when he was having a difficult day. It was something that no one knew about but that he would always do.

Just as he had told James, he was never going to let anyone-including himself-forget her.